Both Obama and Romney are getting a great deal of their private employee donations from banks and insurance companies, following a pattern set in the last presidential election. Last time around Goldman’s employees gave Obama $1 million, more than any other company. Employees of JP Morgan contributed $808,799, the fourth most.
Earlier this week I read a survey on Obama’s approval ratings. A CBS poll found his ratings at the lowest they’ve ever been (for CBS polls that is). From a 50% approval last month, it dipped to 41%. So why did his ratings drop? It’s all about oil.
The US has a menu of five choices to reduce debt, says respected economist Carmen M. Reinhart. It could do it through economic growth. It could choose to cut back spending, known in Europe as austerity plans. It could default, the Greek option. It could “encourage” or “allow” inflation to reduce debt in real money terms. And, lastly, it could impose a diet of financial repression on the economy.
It was last December when I drove from my home in Baltimore to attend a holiday party in Washington DC. I go to this same party every year. All I can say is, Washington parties are different.
The SEC has once again treated Wall Street miscreants with kid gloves, slapping two ex-Bear Stearns hedge fund managers with penalties that your grandmother could pay off.
Insider trading was in the news this past week. A growing national scandal was supposedly put to rest. After six years of rejecting any punitive limits on its ability to trade on insider information, Congress finally passed the Stop Trading on Knowledge, or Stock Act. Last Thursday it passed 417 to 2.
“Mitt Romney says he’s not concerned about the very poor because they have safety nets to protect them. He says he’s concerned about the middle class. Romney doesn’t seem to realize how much of the middle class is becoming poor” -Robert Reich
President George W. Bush says he’d do the bailout again: ““I’d make the same decision again if I had to,” explaining that he “didn’t want to gamble.”
